Adblock Plus Gets Self-Updating App To Circumvent Google Play Ban

Last week, Google made everybody angry by announcing the retirement of Google Reader. While everybody was fuming about that, the company also started removing ad blockers from Google Play, including A...
Adblock Plus Gets Self-Updating App To Circumvent Google Play Ban
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Last week, Google made everybody angry by announcing the retirement of Google Reader. While everybody was fuming about that, the company also started removing ad blockers from Google Play, including Adblock Plus. It didn’t take long, however, for the app to make its way back to Android.

The Adblock Plus team introduced version 1.1 of its Android app today. This version brings with it automatic updates to get around the fact that it’s not welcome on Google Play anymore. The team took the opportunity to implement a number of other changes as well:

  • Implemented automatic updates
  • Added a dialog to help with the manual proxy configuration
  • Separated filtering and proxy activation settings to avoid loss of connectivity after manual configuration
  • Switched to the Holo user interface theme
  • Improved icon hiding
  • Implemented a workaround for a Chrome issue causing blank pages
  • Fixed an issue with URLs containing apostrophes
  • It’s pretty obvious that Google didn’t like Adblock Plus because it prevented the company from earning ad revenue off of apps and mobile browsers. It will be interesting to see if Google does anything to combat its return.

    One of the key advantages of Adblock Plus is that it doesn’t require your device to be rooted so I can imagine Google introducing a change in future versions of Android that blocks Adblock Plus and similar software on non-rooted devices.

    Even if Google were to do that, something would come along to bring ad blocking back to Android. Consumers have shown through ad blocking software that they simply don’t like the current form ads take on. So instead of fighting ad blockers, perhaps Google should find a way to make mobile ads less obnoxious.

    [h/t: The Next Web]

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